not think enough of it to even go to see it. He was one of the number who went from LaGrange at Sam Houston's call to hold Gonzales from the invading Mexican army, but there were not enough Texans to accomplish this task, so General Houston

detailed him and a few others to keep the women and children ahead of the Mexican army.

I was born in Fayette County in 1849. Father bought a fine tract of land on the prairie on the east side of the Colorado River, fourteen miles above Columbus, and moved there in 1852, and when I was twenty-one years old he turned his stock and farm over to me.

R. F. SELLERS

In 1871 I made a trip up the trail to Newton, Kansas, with Barnes & Seymour. We had several hundred old wild steers in the herd that were from four to fifteen years old, which had been raised in the brush on the Sandies, and they stampeded frequently, giving us a world of trouble. So right there I gained a lot of experience in handling stampeded cattle that has been worth a great deal to me in working with cattle in the years that followed. We started this herd about the 10th of May and reached Newton the 12th of August. After we passed Fayette County there were but few settlements, and when we got up near Red River we found it to be a wild country. Almost every man we met carried two six-shooters and a Winchester for protection. When we passed through the Indian Territory we had no trouble with the Indians, but they attempted to stampede our herd several times. Two or three miles off the trail there were thousands of buffalo, all the way

to Kansas, but they were too wild for us to get near them, and the only way to approach near enough to kill the buffalo was to take advantage of the wind and get on the wind side of them. Many men in those days made it a business to kill and skin buffaloes for their hides, which they hauled into the forts and sold. On this trip I saw seven head together that had been killed and skinned.

There were a great many wild horses to be seen, but they were also too wild for us to get very close to them. One day a man nooned at our camp who told us that he had made a great deal of money for several years capturing these mustangs. He had erected pens at convenient distances into which to run them. These pens were made of poles which had been hauled from the river bottoms twenty-five to fifty miles distant. In capturing these horses he told us that his system was to keep right after them in a walk, keeping up the same gait day and night, never allowing them to approach a water hole or take time to graze, and in due time he could drive them into his pens. He sold them to the farmers in Kansas, as that country was just settling up.

I commenced feeding cattle in 1876. In 1882 we sold our farm and I went into the cattle business, paying as high as $22.50 per head for my cattle. In 1884 the price had declined to $5 a head, and I drove them to Colorado and sold them.

In 1885 I put up a herd for Graham & Sisson of Colorado, with the understanding that I was to buy and put in with them if I wanted to do so. I gathered these cattle in Lampasas and adjoining counties, and it was a very dry spring, the worst that had been experienced in many years. There was but little water on the trail from Lampasas to the Indian Nation. We drove the herd to Baird City and shipped them by way of Fort Worth up to Pease River. After we crossed Red River we found but little water that our cattle would drink, and we traveled at one time three days and nights without water

for them, but the morning of the fourth day a heavy rainstorm came upon us and filled all of the shallow holes in the ground with water and supplied our herd. I never in my life saw cattle drink as much as that herd drank. From there on we did not have difficulty in getting water and grass, and made it to the Graham & Sisson ranch in Colorado with our cattle in fine shape.

I suppose I am the oldest feeder in the state, as I commenced in 1876 and have missed only four or five winters since that time. I have bought steers in every county from Brown and Comanche to the coast, and have sold from $2.75 to $14.75.

UP THE TRAIL TO NORTHERN NEW MEXICO

By L. A. Franks of Pleasanton, Texas

I was born in Guadalupe County, Texas, on the San Geronimo Creek, February 21, 1847. Moved to Atascosa County in 1853. My father, Ben F. Franks, being a cattleman from his boyhood days, I was raised a cowboy from the cradle up and spent my boyhood days in Atascosa County. My father, having passed away in 1862, myself and brother were left to take care of our mother and sisters. I worked cattle and fought Indians for several years, and in 1867 I settled on a ranch of my own in La Salle County. Was married in 1870 to Miss Caroline Chapman of Bell County. After several years raising cattle I started up the trail with my first herd in 1872 for G. W. Chapman and myself. I left La Salle County in March for the Wichita (Kansas) market, and went by way of San Antonio, Austin and Fort Worth and straight on up the trail. We left with 1,000 head of steers and, with plenty of water and grass, we had a good trip and lost only a small number of steers on the way, arriving at the Wichita market in June. Returning to

my ranch, I remained there until 1886 and started up the trail again for Presnall, Withers & Co., this time for Northern New Mexico. I left Presidio County in April and this trip was full of hardships all the way out to Roswell, New Mexico. We went by way of Alpine and Toyah and struck the Pecos River at Hash Knife Ranch, and the night we got there our herd stampeded early in the night and we did not get them checked until early morning. Again at Toyah we had a stampede that lasted all night and until sunrise the next morning, and this time we lost 22 head of steers. We went up the Pecos to Seven Rivers and on up. Striking the Pecos again, we followed it as far as Roswell, New Mexico. We had a tough time getting there, with no grass and no rain. We suffered heavy losses all the way up the Pecos, pulling and digging cattle out of bogs every day and losing some each day. We were a dilapidated looking bunch, cattle, horses and men, and when we arrived within five miles of Roswell we had a glorious rain and storm that made our trip the balance of the way very good. We left the Pecos at Roswell and went up by old Fort Sumner, crossed over to the Canadian River and by the old Bell ranch, then went on up the Goodnight Trail through the mountains and reached the market in July with 1,600 head of steers out of the 2,200 that we left Presidio County with in April. This was my last trip up the trail and I came back to Atascosa County and am still here.

THE SON OF A WELL-KNOWN TRAIL DRIVER

By Robert Farmer Jennings of San Antonio, Texas

My parents are Robert J. and Dorcas Ann Jennings. I was born September 30, 1881, in Guadalupe County, Texas, and when I was three years of age my parents moved to Frio County, where they resided near Pearsall until I was fifteen years old. The following three years

I attended school in San Antonio, after which I went to Childress County and spent six months on the Shoe Nail Ranch, which belonged to Swift & Co., meat packers, where I worked as a cowboy.

R. F. JENNINGS

My father at the time was manager of this ranch. In July, 1899, I returned to South Texas and began to collect a bunch of cattle of my own, and ranched in Dimmitt, La Salle and Zapata Counties for the following five or six or six years, during which time a drouth prevailed over the country and I lost all of my accumulation of cattle. I went to Mexico in 1907 as manager of the Piedra Blanca Ranch and remained there until April, 1909, then returned to Texas and began handling cattle with my uncle, W. H. Jennings. From here I went to Osage County, Oklahoma, and spent two seasons, again returning to Texas to engage in buying and bringing cattle out of Mexico. At the time of President Madero's assassination I was on General Trevion's La Bahia Ranch to buy cattle, but we could not agree on the price. General Trevino sold several thousand head of his cattle to other parties and lost the remainder entirely through being at enmity with Carranza, who confiscated the Trevino cattle and had them driven to Piedras Negras in great herds and killed for his soldiers. Out of 40,000 head General Trevino lost outright probably 25,000.

I ranched in Texas until 1916, when some associates and myself bought the majority interest in the Piedra Blanca Cattle Company of Mexico cattle, and I went to that ranch as manager. I stayed there one year, but on account of having no protection from the bandits that